NON-ALC RTDS

SHREWD MOVE, OR CONFUSING PROSPECT?

Though non-alc spirits answer a clear consumer need, there remain substantial hurdles to convincing consumers not only to buy them, but to try them in the first place. The most immediate of these is cost, followed a close second by confusion of what and how to drink them. Much like their spirit cousins, RTDs then, seem to offer a solution. But are they cause for confusion?

As the weather begins to brighten — and the correlation between sensible Government Covid policy and the spiking number of new cases broadens ever further — one thing’s for certain; alfresco drinking is on the horizon. Did you know if you spot your first inappropriately shirtless man by the end of March, it’s going to be a great summer? We’ve counted two so far.

But we digress. Longer evenings and shorter sleeves mean that it must be RTD season. Yes, though the season for canned drinks seems to have drifted into most of the year, spring is a particularly ripe time for new launches aimed at summer drinking, from hard seltzers to now... non-alc RTDs.

The necessity for portable, canned formats during the first Covid lockdowns prompted much of the first wave of these products in Spring 2021. They included Gordon’s 0.0, Lyre’s, Caleno, Amplify, Stryyk and Martini. Most — though not all — stuck to the formular of non-alc versions of familiar serves, e.g. gin and tonic. However, new launches in 2022 are fortunately a little more creative.